New 2970RL, Have a Few Questions

[TyeeMan]

Hey Everybody,

Well, Friday we finally brought home our brand new 2970RL, whoop whoop!! Man is this thing cool! I mean it was awesome when we looked at it at the show, but it's super cool now that we own it. I can't believe how easily it tows! 2200 lbs. heavier than our old camper and it pulls easier and goes down the road a hole lot better.

Now for the questions -

1. The street side (kitchen) slide is a schwintech (sp.) slide. I noticed when the slide is out or in I can see daylight at the bottom corners on the floor. I can see a hole with a wire going through it. This can't be normal, I mean that's like a welcome sign for critters to get in. The curb side slide is not a Shcwintech (sp) and I can't see daylight anywhere, in or out.

2. Water heater access. It appears the water heater is accessible from the wardrobe in the bedroom. Do you take the drawers out to gain full access? If so, how do you remove the drawers?

3. Friction hinge door. Is there a way to reduce the friction in the friction hinges? I was hoping I would get regular non-friction hinges but not so much. I feel like something is going to break off opening and closing the door.

4. Where is the water pump located? I'd just like to know.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[theclarks]

Congrats and welcome, it's always way cooler when you get it home. Don't have your model so not any help, just wanted to say Hey. . . .

[TyeeMan]

I have one more question I forgot to post. When connecting city water to the "utility" center in the front compartment, do you use some type of 90 degree fitting, the pressure regulator and then the water supply line? It would seem if you brought hose up through the floor as intended and then connect it to the city water connection, there would be a good chance for the hose to kink.

Thanks!

[WhittleBurner]

Yes we do have a 90 on ours and works great.However we do put the regulator at the other end where we hook the hose up.

[TyeeMan]

Yeah I guess that would make sense to put the regulator on the faucet end of the hose.

Thanks!

[Steven@147]

Hey TyeeMan, Congrats on bringing home your new adventure.

We have the 2950RL, the 2970RL you have is the newest version.
On your kitchen slide seeing daylight at the inside bottom floor suggest something is a miss with the slide seals or are not flipped in or out fully. I would have the dealership check it out.
The dining slide is not a Schwintek? I wonder what it is then. On our 2950RL both slides are schwintek. Our schwintek controller is in the bathroom, inside the linen closet at the bottom. You have to remove a panel to gain access to it. I dont know where they put it on the 2970RL since they redesigned the bathroom, I suspect it is somewhere in the same general area.


I cant advise you on your water heater access. Ours is under the bathroom sink cabinet, you have to remove a panel (two screws) to gain access to it. With the remodeling of the 2950RL bathroom for the 2970RL they must have moved the water heater. There is information in the Grand Design owners manual on how to remove cabinet drawers, there are two levers on each side you have to activate to get a drawer to come out and disengage from the drawer slides.

The water pump is inside the docking station. You will have to remove the side panel to see it. I included pictures of ours.

Enjoy your new RV.

[Steven@147]

I have one more question I forgot to post. When connecting city water to the "utility" center in the front compartment, do you use some type of 90 degree fitting, the pressure regulator and then the water supply line? It would seem if you brought hose up through the floor as intended and then connect it to the city water connection, there would be a good chance for the hose to kink.

Thanks!

Yup we have a 90 on ours also and leave it permanently attached. We have the regulator and the inline filter at the other end, at the camp site faucet.

you will need an additional water hose to use just for the black tank flush out attachment. you don't want to use your fresh water hose for this, too much potential for contamination. We purchased a cheap regular old garden hose to use just for flushing out the black tank. We don't use a pressure regulator when flushing out the black tank. My procedure is to dump the black tank and let it drain fully. While its draining I attach the regular garden hose to the black tank flushing connection on the side of the RV, then connect the other end to the camp site faucet and turn it on full force. (I have fully disconnected the fresh water hose from the camp site faucet while flushing the black tank)
Now I close the black tank dump valve and let the flushing action work inside the tank for 60 seconds, then open the black tank dump valve and let it drain again while the flushing action is still going on inside the tank. I do this two times. It seems to keep the black tank cleaned out and the sensors working better. CAUTION: Don't let the flushing action go too long with the black tank dump valve closed. You could overfill the black tank and black water come out of the toilet.

Once done with the black tank, I dump the grey tanks one at a time, this helps to clean out the sewer hose.

[TyeeMan]

Hey Steve, thanks for your reply!

I emailed my sales guy with four pictures of the holes I see, he forwarded that to the service department so I'm waiting to hear back from them. It's kind of wierd cuz where I see the holes, there appears to be black plastic trays, as if they were meant to catch water and then drain out the holes. Can't imagine there would be water dripping down the outside slide wall when the slide is in.

When we were looking at the trailer I asked why one slide was a Schwinteck and one was not? The answer I got was that the dining/theater seat slide was too big for the Schwinteck to handle. The mechanism looks like two big powered lead screws that go through the frame. I don't see any daylight anywhere on this slide.
Incidentally the controller for the Schwinteck slide is under the bathroom sink behind a little false wall.

I got some info on accessing the water heater. As you may know the 2970 has a wardrobe in the bedroom. By removing the drawers I can then gain full access to the valves on the water heater.

I kind of thought the H2O pump might be in the docking station. I see by your pictures that you have 45 degree fitting coming off the water connection, I'll have to pick one of those up.

Yeah, super excited to finally have made the purchase and have it sitting in our driveway! To be honest I was a bit worried how my truck would pull it! I have an 02 GMC 1500HD (basically a 2500 re-badged) crew cab, 4X4, 6.0L gas. Our previous trailer was about 5000 lbs but had flatter front so it towed like I was pulling a parachute. The 2970 is 2200 lbs heavier with an extra 450 lb tongue weight. Man this thing pulls like a dream! Rock steady rolling out at 65 mph into a bit of a head wind, , couldn't be happier!

[TyeeMan]

Thanks for the reply on the black tank flush. You beat me to it, I was actually going to post the question - do you use the pressure regulator when flushing the black tank. Now I know.

[Steven@147]

TyeeMan, I wish we had the wardrobe in our unit. I guess they changed a few more things on the 2970. Thats weird on the slides. According to the weights listed on our unit the kitchen slide (street side)weighs a lot more then the dining slide. If they were going to change things, I would think they would have changed the kitchen slide. Oh well, so far our slides have worked fine but I always make sure its level before operating the slides.

Ours pulls great also. We just came back from a weekend trip down at the Whispering Oaks RV park right off interstate 10 halfway between San Antonio & Houston. Great little park. Pulling in overdrive through the hill country of Texas there are some pretty long relatively steep hills, she did great.